Working from home …

The best thing in the world or just a chance to be lazy? Working from home for some people is amazingly freeing and they enjoy the peace that a quiet home office brings. For others the very idea of having to manage their own day is so mind-blowing they find themselves doing everything but anything their company would call part of their job description. So is there a personality type that suits having a home office or is it the passion and purpose that gets you on track?

For me I would definitely say it is the latter. I have worked from home on different projects and some are most definitely head-down, ‘is that the time, goodness I better go to bed’ days and others are more the ‘find yourself at the gym and picking up dry-cleaning’ category. When I am engaged in a project that has my interest and attention I could work on the hard shoulder of a busy road and still be effective. When I am elsewhere mentally I may as well be physically too, because keeping focus is like trying to push water uphill.

What I have found is that certain activities and techniques help –

Having a defined list that I can tick off is a great thing (I love lists). The more challenging the task the more items on my list, that way I can tick things off more frequently which gives me a huge sense of getting somewhere and a knowing that I am and will reach the end of this job.

Putting myself into work mode; speaking to a colleague or reading a work related article can switch me from playful to work focused.

Remembering my goals and ultimate vision for life. This is a great one for me and possibly my favourite. As soon as I click back into my bigger picture I see the irksome job of the moment as being a little step in a huge picture of greatness.

Planning breaks and a treat; I know it is old-fashioned to bring up the carrot and the stick but it really works. Tick one, two or three things off my to do list, take a break, ten leave the office for an hour; or something along those lines, it depends of course on the tasks and the deadline

Cut down on distractions; turn off all social media (did I mention my love of Facebook?) and put my mobile phone on silent. That way I’m not tempted to respond to anyone’s message and get sidetracked on replying to everyone’s status update; easily done when you’re looking for a way out of doing the ‘this’ you don’t want to do

How about you? What is effective at getting you through ‘those’ projects and tasks? Do you use the same as me or do you have something else that works better for you?

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